Floods in pakistan bear similarities to those in india it’s time for a collaborative mechanism to deal with extreme weather events

Floods in pakistan bear similarities to those in india it’s time for a collaborative mechanism to deal with extreme weather events

Floods in Pakistan bear similarities to those in India. It's time for a collaborative mechanism to deal with extreme weather events.

There are indications that India will join the growing number of countries and international bodies that have responded to Pakistan’s appeal for help to deal with the ravages of the worst floods to hit the country in more than a decade. According to a report in this newspaper, discussions are underway at the highest levels on extending assistance to the beleaguered nation. In the past, too, the humanitarian impulse to reach out to a neighbour in crisis has moved Delhi and Islamabad to keep their geopolitical rivalry in abeyance. Pakistan provided assistance after the Gujarat earthquake of 2001. India did likewise when large swathes of Pakistan were flooded in 2010. The cooperation between the two countries during the Kashmir earthquake of 2005 even precipitated conversations about a collaborative disaster relief mechanism. Unfortunately, however, there has been little headway on that count, though the two countries did put down the cudgels again during the Kashmir floods of 2014.

Pakistan has experienced an unusually wet monsoon this year. The season began in June, a month earlier than usual, after a nearly two-month-long drought. In August, the country received more than three times the normal rainfall. Though scientists can’t yet affirm the extent to which the catastrophe has been aggravated because of climate change, there is near unanimity that the deluge bears the imprint of a global-warming-induced extreme weather event. Swollen rivers cause more havoc because drainage systems in cities have not received adequate attention from the country’s planners. In several parts of Pakistan, embankments that have not been repaired for years have been swept away.